Along the gallery wall of old black-and-white photos in the lobby of the new Veranda House, one image stands out. The shot was taken in 1881, the year island entrepreneur and eccentric inventor Nathan Chapman purchased the property as a house for him and his wife on the site of the 1684 home of mariner William Gayer, the first person to build on the lot. It happened to be the same year the Coffin family chose to throw a family reunion, bringing hundreds of family members to the island. With limited lodging options, a large group of them stayed at Chapman’s new house on Step Lane.

And like that, an idea was born. One year later, the Veranda House was open for business as a hotel. Over the next few decades, the Veranda House helped put Nantucket on the map as a tourist destination in the late 1800s and 1900s. The inn also passed through many hands. In 1901, it was purchased for just $200. In 1946,it was purchased by Jo Devine and her husband, Tom, the so-called mayor of Nantucket. They passed the torch to their son, who later handed it to his son Ethan. He held on to it until 2006, when he sold the inn for $3million to Susan and Dale Hamilton, who went on to sell it for $4.1 million in 2019.

Then in 2022, on an otherwise picturesque summer day, the Veranda House went up in flames, taking with it decades of history. The fire completely destroyed the inn’s iconic verandas and balconies, leaving the building a charred shell of itself. All 36 guests, along with hotel staff members, miraculously escaped the fire alive, including several guests who were saved thanks to the off-duty heroics of Nantucket Fire Department Captain Nate Barber.

In the aftermath of that devastation, after the wreckage of what was left was torn down, a new structure has emerged—one that looks strikingly familiar to the venerable inn, but with a modern interior that emphasizes safety.

"This is is an absolutely brand-new modern building with the most modern life-safety systems—the electrical work, the sprinklers, the fire suppression,” said Ralph V. Izzi Jr., vice president of corporate marketing and public affairs for the Procaccianti Companies, the real estate company that owns the Veranda House. “With that, in addition to an elevator that was installed, we’ve really taken this to be the safest property on the island.”

The new three-story inn is nearly an exact replica of the old Step Lane building that had stood in the same spot. The inn has 19rooms, the same number as the old Veranda House. Inside those rooms are spa-like baths made with Carrara marble, subway-tiled showers and rainfall showerheads. Guests can choose between a queen petite or a king petite, as well as a queen or king bed with balcony access, or the cream of the crop, the grand harborview king with a balcony.

he number-one thing we’ve received feedback on so far is how similar it looks from the outside and how that means a lotto returning guests, in terms of modern standards inside,” said Alicia Hehir, general manager of the Nantucket Resort Collection, a subsidiary of the Procaccianti Companies that operates the hotel.

While the inn opened for a trial run during Stroll in December, the hotel’s official grand opening came in April, the culmination of months of research, discussions with historians and meetings with the Historic District Commission. Izzi said the goal was to make sure every element of the new building adhered to the design elements of the old building that burned down.

“It never crossed our minds[to build a new inn that would look completely different] because we value the importance that this property had and the historic significance that it had to the island of Nantucket,” Izzi said.